Ke Nako for a green dawn for African Capital Cities
Yesterday the 2018 Fifa Soccer World Cup kicked off in Russia. As I watched the host nation celebrate their first win of the tournament I was overwhelmed with nostalgia as I remembered our own victory in 2010. “Ke Nako!!” That was the reverberating sounds of every African that walked the open streets of every host city.
“Ke Nako” simply means ‘it’s time’. It is indeed the ideal time for Africa and its Capital cities to lead the climate change adaptation agenda in the same way we lead the way in 2010 though the latter were for different reasons. Climate Change is indeed here. It is currently being felt in all the corners of the African continent. Last week 35 mayors from various corners of the African continent gathered in Pretoria during the Sustainability Week to discuss best practise methods on how their cities can advance towards low carbon development in a well co-ordinated manner. It is anticipated that 70% of people will live in cities by 2030. In their very nature cities have a responsibility to provide a habitable, walkable and accessible neighbourhoods for its citizen.
The Capital host city, City of Tshwane recognises the importance of sustainable development in its mandate of infrastructure development and services as such it has committed itself to rolling out effective 3Ps such as the Tshwane House project. As part of this conference Green Building Design Group and Ubuntu Lab hosted a Green Cafe Tshwane dialogue where industry participants from different walks of life had to come up with practical and creative integrated green design thinking solutions to assist our host partner City of Tshwane achieve a net zero carbon city by 2030 in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 11) and the Tshwane declaration that was concluded by the African Capital Cities Sustainability forum. The deliberations of this forum will be presented to sustainability stakeholders as the “roadmap towards a net zero carbon city” during the 6th Going Green Conference which takes place at Tshwane House from the 29th — 30th August 2018. The plan is to use the conference platform to highlight the implementation plan within an open and transparent communication platform than can be used as key inputs for the Cities’ Net-Zero Carbon aspirations
Furthermore the City has embarked on a sustainability journey towards urban regeneration and is actively championing the ‘Ke Nako’ theme in an expedient attempt to move towards net zero carbon commitments through its commitments within the C40 Cities South Africa Building program and its own Tshwane Declaration that was co-signed with other 34 African Capital Cities at the ACCF from last week. The conference itinerary is as follows:
28th August 2018: Net Zero Hackathon and Exhibition Opens
29th August 2018: Day 1 conference (Opened By Cllr Mayor Solly Msimanga)
30th August 2018: Day 2 Conference (Includes Net Zero Hackathon finalists)
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Green Building Design Group is a leading partner in the creation of an adaptive and inclusive green economy in Africa. We pride ourselves in being experts in the Green Economy with over 40 years combined team experience in the green economy. Our team works actively in Driving and Influencing Policy Implementation through direct access to the construction regulatory bodies, provincial and municipal governments.
www.greenbdg.co.za
UbuntuLab, is a personal growth hub that focuses on instilling holistic development skills to emerging market entrepreneurs; primarily in Africa. We deliver training on VALUE-BASED ENTREPRENEURSHIP; with a strong emphasis on the entrepreneur tapping into their authenticity to guide them.
